People deserve better on rubbish

Frankly, household waste collections across the district have been rubbish for years – as many residents will attest. It’s one of the biggest gripes on residents’ forums with numerous complaints about unemptied bins.

The council gave contractor Serco a £4.7 million deal in 2013 for the waste collection service until 2021.

But last year it had to haul the company across the coals for consistently missing targets.

So a council recommendation to hand Serco an extra £300,000 a year of taxpayers’ money to sort the problems is a little galling.

The council’s frustration with the service, which has never hit its targets, is evident.

After all, it takes the flack for poor service as much as Serco.

We have no doubt that emptying bins on such a vast scale is not as simple as it seems, but the consistently poor performance is just not acceptable.

The council says it will not accept any future failures from the company and is already considering setting up its own joint waste collection service with other east Kent councils after 2021.

It would be an extraordinary turnaround from the clamour to outsource everything.

But if that means getting the service right and, even better, at a cheaper price because there aren’t profits to be paid to shareholders, then it has to be welcomed.